Program Evaluation

Be the Change Program

The volume and diversity of demand for services has far exceeded our expectations.

By the end of June 2014, we had taken 35,000 trips to deliver services to over 4,000 individuals.

75% of the trips involved providing over 250,000 miles of transportation to our clients. These individuals came in significant numbers from every section of the homeless population, including chronic homeless, families, battered women and at-risk youth. Our intervention model involves referrals from community hospitals, organizations or the public at large, followed by transportation to a partner organization that provides an appropriate service. We also provide follow-up care after placement.

When necessary the Be the Change program provides emergency intervention stays to our unsheltered friends in order to create a seamless transition of services.

Through the end of June 2014, we facilitated over over 45,000 bed nights for over 2,000 individuals.

We provided another 8,000 nights of emergency intervention shelter.

Statistical Highlights from February 2010 through June 2014

35,000 van trips to work with 4,000 individuals

Helped shelter over 2,000 people for over 50,000 nights

45,000 nights arranged with partner

8,000 nights provided

Enrolled over 600 individuals in detox services

Assisted over 400 chronic homeless and young adults into full or transitional reintegration

How is homelessness defined?

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines a homeless person as someone who is:

sleeping in an emergency shelter

sleeping in places not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks, or abandoned or condemned buildings

spending a short time (30 consecutive days or less) in a hospital or other institution, but ordinarily sleeping in the types of places mentioned above

living in transitional/supportive housing but having come from streets or emergency shelters

being evicted within a week from a private dwelling unit and having no subsequent residence identified and lacking the resources and support networks needed to obtain access to housing

being discharged from an institution and having no subsequent residence identified and lacking the resources and support networks needed to obtain access to housing

How do people become homeless?

Homelessness is caused by a number of factors, including:

Poverty and the lack of affordable housing: current levels of housing costs, coupled with low-wage jobs and the recent economic downturn, push even the working poor out of their homes

Divorce, domestic violence and lack of family support

Chronic health problems

Mental illness

Drug and alcohol addiction

Natural disasters

How many people are homeless in the U.S.?
Due to the circumstances of homelessness, it is very difficult to come up with a reliable number of people who experience homelessness. According to the Alliance’s most recent estimate, approximately 744,000 people are homeless on any given night. Read more in Homelessness Counts. Information on the last annual estimate of 2.5 to 3.5 millions people experience homelessness per year, is available in Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve.
Resource data from National Alliance to End Homelessness

The Cost of Doing Nothing

It costs Kansas City taxpayers $5,390 each time a homeless person requires emergency services.

Eliminating just one emergency a day would save the city over $1.9 million annually.

In the Plaza area, emergency room visits by homeless cost of over $3 million annually.

Add to that, MAST charges total $340,000 annually for just ten individuals.

Only an estimated 20% of Emergency Room visits by homeless are considered a real emergency.

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Local Homeless Populations

VETERANS
Homelessness has become a challenge in the veteran community. About 1800 homeless veterans live in the Kansas City area. About 87 percent of homeless veterans suffer from a mental illness or substance abuse. Nationally, veterans make up 11 percent of the adult U. S. population, but they make up 25 percent of the homeless, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. – Jennifer MannSUBURBAN
“There are homeless in Johnson County, Olathe and Shawnee, except they are more hidden. There are at least 14,000.00 homeless people in the Kansas City area.”
Cynthia Larcom, Executive director of the Homeless Services Coalition of Greater Kansas CityYOUTH

More than 2,000 young people in Greater Kansas City are homeless at any given time.

For the past five years, lack of space at Synergy House—which provides 60% of the beds available to the metro’s homeless youth—has forced Synergy to turn away one youth for every one that is served.

National statistics are representative of our experiences locally in serving youth:

Most youth become homeless because of problems in the home.

Nearly half experienced physical or sexual abuse at home.

Nearly half report their parents had been treated for substance abuse or mental health issues.

Nearly half have witnessed domestic violence in the home.

12-17 year olds are at greater risk for being homeless than are adults.

One in seven youth between the ages of 10 and 17 will experience being homeless at least once during that time period.

40% report being abused or thrown out because of their sexual orientation.

50% were told to leave by their parents, or parents knew they were leaving and didn’t care.

Children

1,500 children die every year from child abuse and neglect. That is just over four fatalities every day. 79% of the children killed are younger than age four.

80% of young adults who had been abused met the diagnostic criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder at the age of 21 (including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, & post-traumatic stress disorder)

Abused children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy

Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime.

Children who have been sexually abused are 2.5 times more likely develop alcohol abuse and 3.8 times more likely to develop drug addictions.

Synergy’s Children’s Center housed 110 children last year.

19% of the children served by Synergy’s children’s shelter are under one year old. 61% are under six years old.

Youth

More than 2,000 young people in Greater Kansas City are homeless at any given time.